As the numbers on the waiting list continue to grow, the number waiting longer than the target time of 18 weeks passed 500,000 for the first time in nearly a decade - with the last time so many people were waiting that long was August 2008, when 521,000 had been waiting more than 18 weeks.

The number of people waiting to start treatment at the end of April was 4.01m, a rise from 3.84m at the end of March. The waiting list has increased by 6.2% when compared to a year earlier. The last time this so many people were waiting for treatment was in September 2007, when there were 4.00m on the lists.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said patients waiting for planned operations are paying the price for seeing the NHS through one of the worst winters in recent memory, following the decision in January to delay tens of thousands of operations as the health and social care system struggled to cope with the pressures of a colder than average winter.

'Shameful'

RCN Chief Executive Janet Davies, said: “Cancelling non-urgent care may have helped the NHS fight through one of the worst winters in recent memory, but patients in need of elective surgery should not have to pay the price for chronic staff shortages and years of underfunding.

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“Half a million people have waited more than 18 weeks for planned care, the highest figure in 10 years.

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While the proportion waiting less than 18 weeks has improved since the end of March, when it was 87.2%, it’s still the second lowest performance since March 2009.

The number of people waiting longer than a year for treatment rose to 2,882 at the end of April, up from 2,755 a month before and the highest number since 2,959 were waiting in July 2012.

Mr Ian Eardley, Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons and Consultant Urologist, said: “It is very worrying that there are now half a million patients waiting for planned hospital treatment.

"Disappointingly, and despite the efforts of frontline staff, NHS waiting lists have now ballooned to levels that we have not seen since 2008.

"These patients are people who have been diagnosed with a condition that requires hospital treatment by a consultant doctor and a high proportion of them will be for operations, such as a hip a knee replacement.

“We’re now in June and yet it remains unclear how the NHS plans to catch up with the planned surgery backlog caused by the winter pressures.

“If patients have to wait excessively long for surgery there is a risk their condition will deteriorate and the treatment will be less effective.

"It is also very distressing - and debilitating for someone who is living with a painful condition - to have to wait a long time for treatment.”